The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse
by Viveca Stucke
Cape Cod Community College (4C's) is producing an upcoming show to celebrate Thanksgiving. Their production of “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse is a unique performance that demonstrates ideas regarding cultural appropriation, the respect of cultures, and performative allyship.
“In the play, they’re trying to create a 1st Thanksgiving Day play for Native American Heritage Month for elementary schoolers” said Summer Bates-Smith, the stage manager for the play.
There are 4 main characters in the play. The character Logan is the director of the play and is portrayed by Madeline Pitts. There is also Caden, whose character was introduced to provide historical insight from his Elementary School History Teacher and is played by Sean McQueen. The role of Alicia is played by Anna Joslyn, where she’s an actress from LA who adds the element of a beautiful but spacey character into the show. Alicia is accompanied by her boyfriend, who is also a yoga instructor, who is played by Josh Devlin.
Sean McQueen as Caden, Joshua Devlin as Jaxton, Maddie Pitts as Logan, and Anna Josselyn as Alicia
“They’re all caricatures of 'woke' people.” Bates-Smith said. “It takes place in today’s day and age where performative allyship is big.”
This theme is integrated throughout the play to augment the ideas regarding culture and the respect of identities. Bates-Smith emphasized that the impact of the play is to open the audience’s eyes to the need for considerate the line between appreciation and appropriation of a culture.
“This story, although written by an indigenous playwright, features 4 white characters, attempting to make a Thanksgiving play for Native American Heritage Month.” added Vana Trudeau, the director of the show and the College Events Coordinator at 4C's. “It was an opportunity for us to take a close look at it and unpack some of the fallacies and untruths that were woven into that story and start to take a look at it from a Native American perspective”. Throughout the story, these themes are addressed in a satirical manner to help raise awareness of the issue of representation.
“When highlighting some of the less attractive American values, the satire speaks volumes. The production calls to attention the unfortunate truth that people in America (and abroad) make attempts to better the situation for Native Americans, but don’t necessarily have their hearts in it to take meaningful action.” stated Sean McQueen, who plays Caden in the show. The manner in which the story is told, through satire, is vital to the impact of the message that is being sent.
“Alicia is hired to be their Native American.” said Bates-Smith. “As we go through the play, we find out she is not actually of Native American descent.” Through this, the play is able to introduce an idea that addresses the need to respect different cultures. By building on this theme, the audience is able to recognize the importance of appreciating, but not appropriating cultures. The play also highlights how to confront this topic, whilst also trying to perform the play.
“Logan, the director, says we cannot do a Thanksgiving show without a Native American person to represent their side of the story” added Bates-Smith. “They try to figure out how they can do this with a group of white people, and still try to tell this first Thanksgiving story.” This is also an idea that can be uniformly recognized by casts, crews, and productions, no matter the show. It is vital to have proper representation in shows, so that cultures, ethnicities, and races can be portrayed in the most accurate light. Bates-Smith added on to this idea by discussing how this is something that is specifically relatable for Cape Cod. With a predominantly white community, there is often a lack of focus on race related issues, especially regarding representation. This reflects the outcome of the show, and how they approached their need to be inclusive and appropriate in their casting.
“They don’t do it well.” said Bates-Smith. “The show is a comedy, but it makes the audience sit in front of a mirror and say, “this show is funny, but the things they’re doing is absurd, and we should take a step back and look at that.”” By doing this, the audience is able to reflect on the themes presented and relate them to their own lives. They can ponder on their actions and how they relate to the respect of cultures.
The audience is not the only group of people who learned from the show. Since the show revolves around a play and themes of representation. This permits the cast and crew to gain new insight on the need to incorporate different perspectives into their productions.
“It was an opportunity for us to take a close look at it and unpack some of the fallacies and untruths that were woven into that story and start to take a look at it from a Native American perspective.” added Trudeau
“We’re calling ourselves out a little bit and saying, we do not have a great representation of non-white artists in our performing arts program, so we need to do better. The play is almost a mirror that in our program, many educational theater programs across the country, and even community theaters and professional theaters typically center a white narrative.” By addressing this topic, there is an opportunity to implement a standard of change that will help to increase the level of representation.
“It gives us an opportunity to step back and say that we didn’t realize the harm we were doing, but it is harmful and let’s talk about doing better. When you know better, you do better.” said Trudeau, and furthered on this concept by discussion on how there is a need to emphasize equality, equity, and inclusion in the theater world. The production of a play permits the opportunity to reach an audience, and through this widen their perspective of the world and invite them to open their eyes to a new view.
Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Around Campus, Events